1. Field of the Invention
This invention relates to a sliding headliner for a motor vehicle roof for covering at least one openable cover which has a headliner plate and additional reinforcements attached to the sliding headliner.
2. Description of Related Art
Headliners for a motor vehicle roof are known, for example, from published German Patent Application DE 35 34 375 A1. To facilitate matching of the headliner plate to the roof headliner, the headliner plate in this motor vehicle roof is formed in two parts from a headliner body and a headliner plate frame which is securely joined to the headliner body. The headliner plate laterally engages roof-mounted guides via sliding blocks. One disadvantage of this motor vehicle roof and similar motor vehicle roofs having a guided headliner plate that slides is that the headliner plate cannot withstand the required ejection forces in the situations where stress from within the motor vehicle are applied to the headliner. Stress in this instance is defined as an accident scenario in which a passenger in the motor vehicle is thrown against the headliner plate. There are test specifications for motor vehicle manufacturers for the loads which occur in this case. The frame of the motor vehicle roof of German Patent Application DE 35 34 375 A1 which is provided with the headliner plate may only inadequately withstand such stress, if at all. This disadvantage also applies to other reinforcements of the headliner plate which are disclosed, for example, in the form of reinforcing strips in German Patent Application DE-A1 35 22 047.
The object of this invention is to devise a sliding headliner for a motor vehicle roof which ensures increased resistivity to ejection forces.
This object is achieved by the features described herein. Advantageous developments of the invention are set forth in the various embodiments.
In particular, the invention calls for a special retaining means for the headliner plate in order to be able to effectively withstand stress by ejection forces. The retaining means can be catch hooks, belts or struts which are independent of the actual sliding elements of the headliner plate, which run above or inside the headliner plate and laterally engage the roof-mounted guides. This assemblage of independent catch hooks, belts, reinforcing strips or struts and the roof-mounted guides can be easily designed such that each cooperates to keep the headliner plate securely in position so that the existing stress test specifications of the motor vehicle manufacturers are satisfied. More specifically, a desired deformation behavior or particularly specified bending stiffiess can be imparted to the belts or struts by choosing the material of the belts or struts as well as the dimensions and/or profile of the belts or struts in order to ensure the required resistivity of the headliner plate to ejection forces is achieved. Particularly, by the deformation behavior of the belts or struts, the retaining means can be matched to the stiffness of the openable cover which is made of sheet metal, plastic or glass, in order to oppose ejection forces with a maximum combined resistance and offer optimum passenger protection.
An additional embodiment of the sliding headliner constructed according to the invention, which is not to be underestimated, is that the stable retaining means provides additional protection against break-in to the motor vehicle via the sliding roof.
According to one particularly advantageous embodiment of the invention, the catch hooks, belts or struts of the retaining means are laterally connected to one another via sliding elements which run lengthwise of the sliding headliner, and due to the lengthwise dimension of the sliding element extending over a relatively long segment of the roof-mounted guides, ensures that the ejection forces acting on the belts or struts are applied to the roof-mounted guides and to the roof over as long a distance as possible.
In order to maximize the retention capacity of the retaining means which is formed of catch hooks, belts, reinforcing strips or struts, it is advantageous to provide the roof-mounted guides with additional second guides which are separate from the first guides used to hold the sliding elements.
According to one preferred embodiment, the belts or reinforcing strips of the retaining means for the headliner plate run perpendicular to the longitudinal side edges thereof. Preferably, there are at least two belts or reinforcing strips which are spaced apart from one another in the lengthwise direction and which are solidly joined to one another optionally by belts or cross struts running crosswise.
In the following, the invention is explained in detail by way of example using the drawings.